Rev Dan Hall

Assistant Professor of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh; Core Investigator, VA Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion

The Rev. Daniel E. Hall, M.D., M.Div, M.H.Sc. is Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh and Core Investigator at the VA Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion. Dr. Hall is general surgeon with training in both moral philosophy and theology interested in the ethics of surgery.  His current research uses qualitative and quantitative methods to describe how patients and surgeons negotiate the process of informed consent for clinical surgery.  Dr. Hall is particularly interested to understand how the consent process can be better attuned to patient preferences for information and decision-making style (e.g. What do patients want to know, and how much do they want to know about it? How involved do patients want to be in decisions regarding surgery?). Dr. Hall is also interested in how surgical residency shapes the character of surgeons-in-training and how best to form the virtues of character necessary for good surgical practice. Other research focuses on improving the quality and efficiency of IRB review throughout the VA healthcare system.

Dr. Hall earned degrees in medicine and theology from Yale University before completing his surgical training at the University of Pittsburgh. He is also an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church with interests in the theology of medicine. He was the first John Templeton Fellow in Religion and Medicine at Duke University where his research focused on epistemology, moral philosophy, religious measurement, and the ways in which medical decision-making is influenced by religious and secular worldviews. He has published and lectured on ethics and the role religion plays in the context of clinical medicine.  His clinical interests focus on both minimally invasive and emergency general surgery.